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Oct. 8 Davey Johnson postgame interview

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Q. If you wouldn't mind talking about Zimmermann today, what just didn't work for him?

DAVEY JOHNSON: That's some of the youth in the pitching staff. He didn't really make a lot of adjustments out there. He kind of stayed one way hard away, a good, fastball hitting club, you have to use both sides of the plate, and he didn't really use his slider much early on. Started going to it a little later. But that's just a little inexperience. He's got a very live fastball, but his game plan, basically, was stay away and pound the zone. They are a good fastball hitting club.

Q. Your rotation has gotten you so far. But you come home and you'll have Jackson and Detwiler, both of whom were hit hard here a week ago. Any concerns with the rotation?

DAVEY JOHNSON: No, Jackson's got a lot of experience. He pitched a heck of a ballgame against them, one of the outings. He's certainly up for it. But you know, you have to pitch; you can't go out there and just throw against this ballclub. This is a good fastball hitting club. You have to make some good pitches.

Q. Is there a lesson that Edwin can take from something like this?

DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, he's a very experienced pitcher. I mean, you know, Detwiler at times has gotten the same load, hard sinkers away. He's got great off speed stuff, and when he uses both sides of the plate, he's tough. I don't care how good of a hitting club you've got. But this is part of the maturation process of the staff.

Q. Even though Zimmermann won't go against the Cards again, his ERA is more than twice against any other team; why do some teams own certain pitchers for long periods of time?

DAVEY JOHNSON: You know, pitchers can get into a little rut. Even when I was in Baltimore, he had such a great fastball and he would use that in and out, he had great command in and out and he could pitch with that and just set up his breaking ball, but he got into trouble, because he can go both ways, using the breaking ball instead of the fastball, not always use the fastball instead of the breaking ball.
Hitters are smart and they see patterns, especially with all this technology they look at every start, see how you pitch. And pitchers, you have to make adjustments. I think our guys have come a long way. I really like the progress they have made in a very short time to be where they are at.

Q. What did you think of Bryce today, his first hit

DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, that's inexperience, too. Had a little rally going there and he was in scoring position and he tried to get to third, and that kind of killed the rally we had going. Again, that's just a little inexperience. He's overly aggressive there. He didn't tag up. He had to go back and tag up, and that was right. But it was wrong to try to go to third.

Q. And at the plate, what did you see yesterday and today?

DAVEY JOHNSON: Well, everybody was complaining it was very hard to pick up the ball. It's hard to pick up the spin on the breaking ball. Obviously early on, young hitters were swinging out of the zone. I mean, that I don't think Jaime Garcia threw but just a few strikes, and he got outs on balls way out of the zone.

Q. To follow that up, what point did you feel like the shadows were really no longer a factor? Was it around the second inning or so?

DAVEY JOHNSON: Yeah, after about the third inning, I thought that everybody was seeing the ball better. But that's also, you know, we have some young hitters that are aggressive; need to be a little more patient.

Q. And also, I know this has been a national story all year with Stephen being shut down, and talking about your pitchers for 3 and 4, and I know he's a kid but can Stephen offer something?

DAVEY JOHNSON: We're still a very young ballclub, and this experience, it's a quick study. I mean, this is the time you see what happens against good clubs if you don't make adjustments, don't change your patterns. You can't stay one way.

I don't think, like Zimm, I don't think he came in and usually he uses away and comes in, but he felt more he wanted to just go away against a good fastball hitting club. And early on in the shadows here, you can track a fastball better than you can track a breaking ball, and he just didn't really have one in the first couple of innings.

Q. Are you surprised how many one sided games, one way or the other, these two teams have had in the last four or five weeks?

DAVEY JOHNSON: Not really. You know, we've got some awful good hitters on our side and they have them on their side. You've just got to make pitches.
You just can't go after a club and just throw hard. You've got to pitch. There's a difference between when you really mature as a pitcher, you use all your pitches and it's easier. Obviously tonight, Zimm, he was he had a good live fastball and good movement, but you can't stay one way.

Q. Are you pretty much satisfied to be coming out of here 1 1, or does the sight of all those home runs, etc., leave a bad taste in your mouth?

DAVEY JOHNSON: No, any time your starter goes early, it can be ugly. But I thought the bullpen did a good job. Garcia got his feet wet in post season, did a good job.
You know, found out after I took him out, he's been under the weather for the last couple of days, but I'm the last person to tell if they are under the weather; they all want the ball. But we're fine. We're ready to go home.

Q. Is this today the type of Cardinals' offense you expected to see, as opposed to the Cardinals' offense in Game 1?

DAVEY JOHNSON: I hope I never see this offense again (Laughter).

Their numbers speak for themselves. They have got a fine hitting ballclub, and good pitching will slow down good hitting, but you've got to make pitches, and we didn't do that tonight.